JUNE 9, 1959

NEW YORK—Mrs. Geraldine Thompson, a friend of mine who lives in Monmouth County, N.J., has
a way of telling me that she is a million years old. Yet, she can spark a great many
new things, and for energy and flexibility of thought I think she would compare well
with many people in what we call today the young group.

In her home in Red Bank the other evening she gathered a group of children's court
judges, top educators of the county and state, and institutional heads under whose
guidance come many children, and she discussed with them the possibility of a program
that might be organized to help the schools care for emotionally disturbed children
in the very early stages. By so doing they would not in many cases reach the point
where they would have to be committed to institutions.

Mrs. Thompson is now thinking in terms of a pilot project that might spark activity
along these lines in many other areas of the country.

I have come to the conclusion that our thinking has to go back and begin at the nursery
school and the kindergarten, and I would put much of our money into the all-day neighborhood
schools, beginning with the primary grades. And it is interesting to find New Jersey
discussing a new idea of this kind. I hope New York will be encouraged to do the same.

It is extremely difficult to make the average person realize that, if for 10 years
we put our money to a far greater extent than we now do into improving the life and
care of children in the very early formative years, we might save ourselves a great
deal in taxes for hospitals, mental institutions and the ever-growing number of reformatories
and prisons.

Besides, we might save individuals endless heartbreak, and, as a nation, waste less
human material. We can ill afford to waste any human beings, for in the modern world
in which we live human material is going to be more and more important.

As a nation, we have been wasteful of our land, of our money, and of our children.
But in the struggle against communism we cannot afford to go on in this wasteful manner.
The challenge we have to meet is too great, and the democracies must conserve all
their resources.

I was very glad to see that President Eisenhower's nomination of Ogden Reid, former
publisher of the New York Herald Tribune, to be Ambassador to Israel, had been confirmed.

I understand very well Senator J. William Fulbright's feeling that we should get away
from paying political debts by giving appointments in the foreign service to people
who have been helpful in political campaigns and in many cases to people whose private
means make it possible for them to accept certain posts in countries where it is expensive
to represent the U.S. If we are going to have a good foreign service we should compensate
all our representatives adequately and make it possible for them to represent us with
dignity wherever they may be posted.

But we have not reached the point yet of wiping out all nonservice appointments, and
it seems to me that in the case of Mr. Reid we will have a good representative. I
am sure he will make every effort to understand the country to which he is assigned.
I surmise that he already knows some Hebrew and will know more in a very short time.
We need someone in Israel with sensitivity and understanding, and I think Mr. Reid
will have both.